"A mesmerizing account of the well-known story of Matsyagandha
... and her transformation from
fisherman’s daughter to Satyavati, Santanu’s royal consort and the
Mother/Progenitor of the Kuru clan." - Hindustan Times

"Themes of fate, morality and power overlay a subtle and essential feminism to make this lyrical book a must-read. If this is Madhavan’s first book in the Girls from the Mahabharata series, there is much to look forward to in the months to come." - Open Magazine

"A gleeful dollop of Blytonian magic ... Reddy Madhavan is also able to tackle some fairly sensitive subjects such as identity, the love of and karmic ties with parents, adoption, the first sexual encounter, loneliness, and my favourite, feminist rage." - Scroll

Pages

14 January 2008

Mark your calendars!

This is going to be a teeny tiny post--more like a postette---just to say that if you watch NDTV tonight, at eight pm (We The People) to be exact, you MIGHT just notice, um, me.

It's been most exciting and I will, of course, tell you the whole stoy when I get back. I'm in Delhi now and my mother is super excited about television debut type things, so she's been telling people all day. I'm half embarrassed and half really pleased.

I happened to catch the show on NDTV! I just wanted to say you were awesome! I love the sarcasm(the troll post!). My own blog is nothing much but drawing inspiration from you, I will try to blog more in the future! :) Oh and you proved that people can become famous even while being 'virtually' jobless, that is something I've been dying for! (i hate to work hard)Anyway rock on!

I see you dint stir the NDTV audience or viewers with your familiarity and understanding of the blog-world (moreover, there was no need to coz of the redundancy of the discussion and topic), but you did create a ripple among the viewers with your charming and amiable smile. :)

Now why do I say that topic was redundant? –

1)You regulate something (I mean govt. control) which is having an enormous social influence (mainly negative). While Blogging in India, as if now, is a far-cry from having any social impact, be it positive or negative. So it is highly farcical to even think of regulating something as innocuous as blog, while the monstrous TV channels (esp. insipid Hindi news channels) continue to perpetuate at times an inappropriate and unacceptable message.

2)More importantly, every system has a self-regulatory mechanism, which I think is very much active in blogging. So another reason why blog-world doesn’t warrant an external regulation.

Em, you know what, whenever I get time I do follow “We The People” but most of the times I get disillusioned by all the discussion (even at times on blog). I mean, I find the show a tad elitist. The intellectuals and politicians come to the show- make impertinent points (sometimes pertinent too), throw meaningless verbal volleys at each other, be dogmatic to the verge of making you cringe, and in the end applause and go back home. While nothing concrete comes out of the whole goddamn discussion. The point I’m trying to make is that these discussions should reach the grass root levels to have any impact socially, while on the contrary these end up in the mausoleum called the NDTV studio. I don’t know, maybe I’m being overly critical; maybe this is the way shows are run in the age of TRP ratings.

I saw the program and though I didnt check your blog before,googling "Compulsive Confessor" is the first thing on my task list today.I'll make up the time and read ALL your blogs soon.I thought the program was too vague.I am sure all your blogs wouldnt be about smoking and sex!

You looked soo sooo cute.. and looks not more than shwweeet 18..( u 26..impossible) This is no glib talk. ...You look so cute and good. Impossible to imagine that this was the Em I ve been 'troll' ing on.

Hi So ...i saw u ..I first got to know about u from a mag . Then read all the things u wrote in ur blog Thot u would be like the ol Arundhathi Roy in some old movie she acted in I guess its name is " In which annie gives it to those ones " But u are different U bit ur nail .was insecure didnt enjoy being in the limelight did try to just downplay the whole thing It also appeared that u wanted to just shy off from all that u just wrote in the blog .

I can write a critique of what i thot about u ...It might turn out to be judgemental .Anyways ..Its nice ....really cool infact ... a person like u , as flamboyant as anyone u will get to know in the blogosphere, but susceptible and vulnerable looking in real life ...

good afternoon!when the programme started last night, I said to myself what are the chances of you being there and was pleasently surprised to actually have you as a part of the discussion...you speak well too!

why did you decide to it anyways?..was the lure of tv to good to keep your anonymity?

Interesting…..inspiring ...watching you all bloggers on ndtv... you sit clam there but your blog depict a volcano inside you…..Do visit http://untouchableearth.blogspot.com/ it raw…..only one moth old….and I value your tips...suggestion

i have been a regular visitor of your blog but just had been a silent spectator. I didnt see this post until i saw We the People .Moreover i started watching this program after your introduction was over . But i did recognize you. I was telling my friend who also reads your blog that this is eM..Good work and Congratulations

Hi. started reading your blog only a few days back. For some reason (could it be the goa posts?) I thought of you as a brazen punk who writes well and well, look what you turned out to be- a paavam looking girl who writes so well!Don't care much about the sex posts-loved the ones which you've tagged funny yourself :) Keep writing. Hehe, didnt you hear the psychologist on the show say it was "re-affirming" and all that? Mad Momma- thanks for the link!

i saw u 2! i wanted to check out dat ms (or mrs?) bose (or basu?) blog too, but they've apparently taken it down. it wuz fun, i dint catch da entire episode (wwe & malcolm in the middle :P) but i wanted to check it out. it's been like 3 hrs since da show is finished & i already dont remember ur face :-|

hello,been reading your blog for more than 2 years now, haven't made a single comment! i think you were great on the show, I'd have been scared stiff sitting in a studio with so many people staring at you and listening to every word you're saying. not to mention the judgments that will be passed after the show! i wouldn't have gone at all :) well done!

I have to admit I started watching the show because I wanted to see what you looked like but I ended up watching the whole thing simply because it was so painfully mediocre. Not you or the other bloggers but as someone else here said: the fear of some mainstream journalists of any new medium. That whole show was a testament to blogs exist at all. Because journalism has become so mediocre and catering to mass taste. It's typical that while they belittle the 'sex and the city' angle, it is exactly the one they choose to highlight. They hadn't got a single person there from a political or social blog and read those comments. When reading from the blog of the guy who writes in Hindi, she even said she didn't know if he writes in Hindi or English. How sloppy is that? I'm a journalist myself and always amazed when I see people who must have been the bright young lights at some point but are now so full of themselves, they don't push their boundaries. And the topic itself was so contrived 'should blogs be regulated'. There is no move to regulate it to spark off that kind of question except poor Barkha got tartetted by some rumours and took it personally. The sad thing is that there will probably be some misguided politician will take it up as cause and then maybe there will be regulation. I think you did you a good job of not saying the kind of stuff she was hoping you would say.

hi, I saw you on the show. And you were pretty cool. I used to write blogs on MS but left coz I didn't get the time once I started working (sigh!) but after watchin the show I'm startin again. thanx for the inspiration, at least for being a part of it. thanx :)

Hey! Ditto. I missed it.Sucks! Your blog is something else, though. I'm sure everyone's told you that:)A LOT of people are inspired! Me included! (but of course:))Just goes to show, You really can make a difference! Happy blogging and keep writing!Way to go, really. A lot of bloggers are smiling, because they might be seen very differently now.Ahh...girl POWER!!!Cheers!:)

Three and a half years of blogging.. three and a half years of getting nicey-nicey comments..three and a half years of rampaging through the trolls..and now u get to be with BARKHA DUTT! Lucky girl!!

watched the show..everyone said the same thing(well, more or less).. but u rocked! BTW ..u look so innocent n cute n vulnerable..ws surprised to knw u cud write such stuff! Those camera-pounds were not too hard on my eyes..u look good, lady!

eM-i was going to write you because i saw a pre-review of sorts of your upcoming book in a magazine recently. i of course did not realise about the NDTV show, and missed it. but its great! a TV thing and the book coming up! many congratulations to you. I am looking forward to your book!

I had heard about you from "Vanita" malayalam magazine. Now I am a regular isitor of your blog. Your photos posted in Vanita is very cute. I am a Malayalee from Trivandrum, Kerala. Pls given your e-mail id. I am 28/M/Delhi.